"The lending of own shares by MOL hurt shareholder interests and the management is using MOL’s assets to prevent independent shareholders from controlling the company, OMV CEO Wolfgang Ruttenstorfer said.OMV wants to add points to the agenda of MOL’s AGM on April 24. The Austrian energy firm wants MOL shareholders to vote on the cancellation of the lending of shares to MFB, OTP, BNP Paribas, Magnolia Finance and CEZ. OMV wants an independent auditor to examine these contracts, principally to investigate possible damage to shareholders and verify who bears the risk for these contracts. The Austrian company intends to make the results public, and suggests that KPMG, Deloitte or PricewaterhouseCoopers act as the independent auditor.
“OMV expects independent shareholders to support the new points to the agenda,” Ruttenstorfer said. “Own-shares lending contracts should be cancelled and the shares should be withdrawn,” Ruttenstorfer argued.
“MOL rejects the questioning of its management principles but agrees that the AGM is the shareholders’ forum,” MOL spokeswoman Dóra Somlyai said. “Any shareholder with a stake of at least 1% has the right to propose points to the agenda,” she added.
OMV probably wants to demonstrate that only the friendly shareholders voting with borrowed shares support MOL management, Napi Gazdaság wrote. OMV has a MOL stake of over 5%, and if OMV is ready to pay the costs of an independent auditor then the company registry has to order an examination, the daily adds."
Source: Hungary Around the Clock.
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27.02.2008